Energy Use
Aug. 11th, 2010 09:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helwenThe Archdruid Report has started in a new direction in the past month, towards practical approaches to living a lower energy use life. Part of that approach is learning about how energy, matter, etc. really works in the world. It's useful to understand how nature does things, as the natural world has worked most of the bugs out of the system over many centuries, so if we observe it and learn from it, we have a better chance of lowering our energy needs by mimicking Nature.
For instance, energy use produces waste heat, which sometimes can be captured and used before it fully dissipates. Some buildings are designed to do this (usually in manufacturing or power, but not only them). A simple method Fitzw and I've talked about for the home, if you have a clothes dryer, is to run the exhaust duct over and down into and through a container of water and then back up again. The water acts as a lint trap and the room receives the exhaust as clean warm air -- useful in winter. Not sure how useful that is for us at this point, as I don't use the as often as some folks, but it's a good thought and would definitely work for some folks.
At our old house the water from the washing machine dumped into a sink next to it. I would catch a few buckets of rinse water (2nd rinse is best), and then dump that water back into the _next_ load of laundry. Saved water, electricity, and fill-time, so a winner all-around.
One of the reasons I'm such a strong proponent of insulating (homes and ourselves inside our homes) is that the investment of energy and materials into insulating cuts down on constant energy usage. Do the job right and you won't be using as much energy on a daily basis for _decades_.
Reduce, re-use, recycle, in that order.
Best way to save resources is don't use them. Think about purchases you make. Do you need it? What about the packaging? What happens to that plastic bottle? When you recycle it, is the recycling plant nearby? Do they ship it to China? Does it actually get recycled at all or does it end up in ocean with all the other plastic crap, entrapping animals or getting slowly broken down and eaten -- to perhaps eventually end up back on your dinner plate. And fish get used not just directly as food but also as nutritional supplements for growing fruits and veggies, too.
Second is re-use, and that's a great way to save energy and resources. We make too much stuff, and a lot of it wasn't worth the materials and energy used to make it. Friends, family, swaps, freecycle, Craigslist, tag sales, Salvation Army, Savers, etc. -- lots of choices out there. There are even clothing stores that specialize in good used office clothing and the more upscale goods. If you're handy with a needle, sometimes you can even re-tailor things from these places to be more suited to you. I've gotten silk blouses from a few dollars each from Savers in the past, so you never know what's out there.
And third, recycle -- and that isn't just paper, metal, and plastic anymore. But again, see my comments above, questioning where your recycling goes -- with the economy down, the need for paper for packaging/shipping boxes goes down, and literally tons of paper is sitting in dry dock, waiting for a company to buy them. Fitzw has figured out a barrel for us to use this year, to start making paper bricks. Even with reducing junk mail, we still end up with quite a bit of paper, so it's time to look at using the paper as a heat source. Recycling is also things like composting food scraps, or using them to feed appropriate animals, or repurposing things.
I might actually get that punching/kickbag made this year.... stuffed with old worn out clothing. And maybe if the stuffing needs changing down the line, the cotton and linen bits could be used to make paper by then ;)
But there must be other ways to re-use energy as it works its way from the sun down to background heat. Each part of our lives needs to be looked at, and thought given to what can be done to improve. We'll never be as good at it as Mother Nature, but it's certainly worth a try.
For instance, energy use produces waste heat, which sometimes can be captured and used before it fully dissipates. Some buildings are designed to do this (usually in manufacturing or power, but not only them). A simple method Fitzw and I've talked about for the home, if you have a clothes dryer, is to run the exhaust duct over and down into and through a container of water and then back up again. The water acts as a lint trap and the room receives the exhaust as clean warm air -- useful in winter. Not sure how useful that is for us at this point, as I don't use the as often as some folks, but it's a good thought and would definitely work for some folks.
At our old house the water from the washing machine dumped into a sink next to it. I would catch a few buckets of rinse water (2nd rinse is best), and then dump that water back into the _next_ load of laundry. Saved water, electricity, and fill-time, so a winner all-around.
One of the reasons I'm such a strong proponent of insulating (homes and ourselves inside our homes) is that the investment of energy and materials into insulating cuts down on constant energy usage. Do the job right and you won't be using as much energy on a daily basis for _decades_.
Reduce, re-use, recycle, in that order.
Best way to save resources is don't use them. Think about purchases you make. Do you need it? What about the packaging? What happens to that plastic bottle? When you recycle it, is the recycling plant nearby? Do they ship it to China? Does it actually get recycled at all or does it end up in ocean with all the other plastic crap, entrapping animals or getting slowly broken down and eaten -- to perhaps eventually end up back on your dinner plate. And fish get used not just directly as food but also as nutritional supplements for growing fruits and veggies, too.
Second is re-use, and that's a great way to save energy and resources. We make too much stuff, and a lot of it wasn't worth the materials and energy used to make it. Friends, family, swaps, freecycle, Craigslist, tag sales, Salvation Army, Savers, etc. -- lots of choices out there. There are even clothing stores that specialize in good used office clothing and the more upscale goods. If you're handy with a needle, sometimes you can even re-tailor things from these places to be more suited to you. I've gotten silk blouses from a few dollars each from Savers in the past, so you never know what's out there.
And third, recycle -- and that isn't just paper, metal, and plastic anymore. But again, see my comments above, questioning where your recycling goes -- with the economy down, the need for paper for packaging/shipping boxes goes down, and literally tons of paper is sitting in dry dock, waiting for a company to buy them. Fitzw has figured out a barrel for us to use this year, to start making paper bricks. Even with reducing junk mail, we still end up with quite a bit of paper, so it's time to look at using the paper as a heat source. Recycling is also things like composting food scraps, or using them to feed appropriate animals, or repurposing things.
I might actually get that punching/kickbag made this year.... stuffed with old worn out clothing. And maybe if the stuffing needs changing down the line, the cotton and linen bits could be used to make paper by then ;)
But there must be other ways to re-use energy as it works its way from the sun down to background heat. Each part of our lives needs to be looked at, and thought given to what can be done to improve. We'll never be as good at it as Mother Nature, but it's certainly worth a try.
